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Story
December 10, 1943
Nogales International
Nogales, Santa Cruz County, Arizona
What is this article about?
Editorial from Bisbee Review argues that the Allied world's lack of sympathy for Berlin's mass bombings during WWII reflects just retribution for Nazi atrocities like Rotterdam, not brutalization, as it's part of destroying the German war machine.
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No Tears For Berlin
(BISBEE REVIEW)
One phenomenon of this war of unusual interest is the intense satisfaction persons in all civilized nations feel at news of the mass bombings of Berlin.
Here is one of the great capitals of Europe, one of the most populous cities in the world reduced to smoking rubble. Is regret expressed at the destruction of its historic and cultural monuments? Not the slightest.
More than 10,000 of its inhabitants have been killed, unrevealed scores of thousands injured, hundreds of thousands deprived of their homes and their possessions, their livelihood, their families. Is the outside world horrified or stirred to compassion?
It is not. Descriptions of the inferno of Berlin impart a feeling of awe at the power of mass air raids, but all persons hold that the German metropolis is meeting just retribution. Everyone hopes that the RAF will continue until not a stone is left whole on the spot where once stood Berlin.
A philosopher might assert that this shows the coarsening effect of war, that these hard, inhuman feelings prove that war extorts a hideous toll of those finer sensibilities that are the mark of a civilized man. But only a mental weakling who closes his eyes to all realities could conclude that the Allied peoples have been brutalized.
To reach such a conclusion would be to ignore the aims for which the Allies are fighting to sweep aside the human values of the Atlantic Charter, to discount the varied civilizations of Europe which it is one of the objects of the United Nations to re-establish, to thrust out of consideration all of the individual heroism and sacrifice which are offered in the course of restoring individual freedom in this world. The war on the Allied side is a war against mass brutalization, mass destruction of all individual and all human rights and sacrifices.
How, then, can the civilized world feel as it does about the mass bombings of Berlin? The answer is epitomized in the Nazi bombing of Rotterdam. On a spring morning, without even a declaration of war, the luftwaffe leveled one square mile of Rotterdam in 30 minutes, killing 30,000 innocent men, women and children. The answer is to be found as far west as Belfast; as far east as Stalingrad.
Yet mass bombing of Berlin is not, in its first motivation, a reprisal. It is part of a wide and continuous effort to bomb out the German war machine, to wreck production. It is also an effort to bring home to the German people that which, unfortunately, they did not learn in World War I—the meaning of invasion.
(BISBEE REVIEW)
One phenomenon of this war of unusual interest is the intense satisfaction persons in all civilized nations feel at news of the mass bombings of Berlin.
Here is one of the great capitals of Europe, one of the most populous cities in the world reduced to smoking rubble. Is regret expressed at the destruction of its historic and cultural monuments? Not the slightest.
More than 10,000 of its inhabitants have been killed, unrevealed scores of thousands injured, hundreds of thousands deprived of their homes and their possessions, their livelihood, their families. Is the outside world horrified or stirred to compassion?
It is not. Descriptions of the inferno of Berlin impart a feeling of awe at the power of mass air raids, but all persons hold that the German metropolis is meeting just retribution. Everyone hopes that the RAF will continue until not a stone is left whole on the spot where once stood Berlin.
A philosopher might assert that this shows the coarsening effect of war, that these hard, inhuman feelings prove that war extorts a hideous toll of those finer sensibilities that are the mark of a civilized man. But only a mental weakling who closes his eyes to all realities could conclude that the Allied peoples have been brutalized.
To reach such a conclusion would be to ignore the aims for which the Allies are fighting to sweep aside the human values of the Atlantic Charter, to discount the varied civilizations of Europe which it is one of the objects of the United Nations to re-establish, to thrust out of consideration all of the individual heroism and sacrifice which are offered in the course of restoring individual freedom in this world. The war on the Allied side is a war against mass brutalization, mass destruction of all individual and all human rights and sacrifices.
How, then, can the civilized world feel as it does about the mass bombings of Berlin? The answer is epitomized in the Nazi bombing of Rotterdam. On a spring morning, without even a declaration of war, the luftwaffe leveled one square mile of Rotterdam in 30 minutes, killing 30,000 innocent men, women and children. The answer is to be found as far west as Belfast; as far east as Stalingrad.
Yet mass bombing of Berlin is not, in its first motivation, a reprisal. It is part of a wide and continuous effort to bomb out the German war machine, to wreck production. It is also an effort to bring home to the German people that which, unfortunately, they did not learn in World War I—the meaning of invasion.
What sub-type of article is it?
Historical Event
Military Action
What themes does it cover?
Justice
Catastrophe
What keywords are associated?
Berlin Bombing
Wwii Retribution
Raf Raids
Nazi Atrocities
Rotterdam Destruction
Where did it happen?
Berlin
Story Details
Location
Berlin
Event Date
World War Ii
Story Details
The article discusses the lack of regret for Berlin's destruction by Allied bombings, viewing it as retribution for Nazi actions like the Rotterdam bombing, aimed at dismantling the German war effort and teaching the meaning of invasion.